RadiantGal

Hi, Kindle has some great ideas. My flight and trip home was also very long. The stomach discomfort is not really pain, like you will be in pain all the way home. It is helpful to have someone carry your heavy items, so you don't strain your stomach muscles. I had finished all my pain meds before I left Mexico, and did not need any even when I got home. My suggestion is that after surgery if you have a lot of pain, ask your Doctors for some pain meds to take with you. Truly, there is not much pain after this surgery, more discomfort in the abdomen, nothing to keep you from walking and moving around. RadiantGal

Hi, I got back 3 weeks ago. The other posts are helpful, too. I will add a bit of detail. The food at the Marriott is excellent, I have heard, but we were on a tight budget, and my husband did not want to spend $15 for a hamburger. Here are some options. When you leave the Marriott and turn right you will come to the Walmart. Be careful as you walk around!! Sidewalks are skinny and uneven, and the traffic does not stop for pedestrians. There are a lot of taxis that use sirens to get your attention. Add the honking and awful drivers and traffic, it was very overwhelming my first day out of the hospital. If you go left as you leave the Marriott, you will come to a footbridge over the street, the safest way to cross. As you descend the steps you will see a restaurant shaped like a sombrero called "Petreros", which came highly recommended and my husband enjoyed it. A little further down that side of the street is "Banorte", where you can use the ATM to withdraw dollars. That is the way to go instead of changing dollars to pesos and messing with all that. Try to get lots of single dollar bills and ask for dollars back or they will automatically give you pesos. As you continue down the street past the sombrero restaurant, traffic eases up and you will see a Carl's Junior, and a small group of restaurants including Mexican, Teriyaki, and something else I can't recall. The Carl's Junior is probably the best bet for breakfast. No visit will be complete without a visit to "Revolution Avenue" , a tourist trap for sure, but this street is lined with little shops full of all sorts of goodies to take home. Beautiful ceramic dishes, etc, all hand painted. Each shop owner is very knowledgeable about their wares, and can be haggled down to at least half the original price. It is quite a long walk so you will want a Taxi; $6 each way for us. You will see a huge stainless steel colored arch at the end of the shops, and we found the cheapest prices in that area, along with many authenic Mexican restaurants filled with locals and emitting sumptous grilled aromas. It all smelled heavenly and I couldn't have any! I hope this is helpful, and I have been wanting to post this info as I wish we had known this stuff sooner instead of by trial and error. Take care, let us know how things are going! RadiantGal

I am almost 1 month post op with Dr. Garcia. All was great! A suggestion. Ask Mariana ( Marriott coordinator ) for a microwave and fridge in your room. She got it for me no extra charge and it was great for heating up broth and my husband's leftovers. The fridge was great to keep things cold and my popsickles frozen. When you get to the San Diego airport to go home and are looking at hours without any broth, seek out Saffron Healthy Thai restaurant. They have an awesome, not very spicey broth just for people like us! And at $2.99 much cheaper than the chicken soup. Wishing you all the best! RadiantGal

Thanks for the nice thoughts! We also flew into San Diego, from Seattle, so I had some info specific to that. I also wondered what I was going to "eat" on the long flight. I bought a small container of powdered bouillon, and a sandwhich shop at the Seattle airport was kind enough to fill my Thermos mug with hot water so I could have something hot for the flight. And water, water, water. We got in a bit late, so I had one more mug of broth at the Marriott, then sleep, wake up and off to the hospital. You will only be getting clear liquids after surgery, so same thing goes for the flight home. BUT, we discovered a gold mine in the San Diego airport!! I searched up and down for something close to broth, and the closest thing was chicken soup at "Saffron Healthy Tai" ( at around $8.95 I was not real happy about that........). but when I asked for mostly broth since I had just had surgery, the lady smiled and said they have just broth for that very purpose, for $2.99 !!!!!!! It was sooooo good, light on spices, and felt great on my tummy. It smelled so good my husband also had a cup! We had a long wait so I had an additional cup, and that held me over until we got home. So a huge shout out to Saffron Healthy Tai for having this option for post surgery patients. I do wish they advertised this, but they don't. I will close, as I need to reread your post about the items you want to bring.. Take care!

I am doing great, 3 weeks post op. By the time we got home, a week had gone by and I was encouraged to start my protein drinks. I had 3 a day to get my 60-80 gms of protein, and in between I had nice, hot broths. Two weeks post op I used my hand held blender to puree soups ( split pea without the ham and potatoes, etc ) and slooooooowly sip them. My only real problems have been when I don't chew the food thoroughly, or go too fast. I also have added sugar free pudding and made some sugar free tapioca pudding. A small scrambled egg and low fat yogurt have also been added. I am going to work on getting more veggies in my diet by pureeing canned veggies like carrots and green beans. There are some particular vitamins we need to be taking, per the handout my Dr. gave me, and I have had great fast delivery from www.bariatricadvantage.com. I hope this is helpful, and I will send another post about things to bring or not bring. Take care, RadiantGal

Are flying into San Diego and going to Tijuana!

Hi, I just came back from my sleeve in Tijuana. I had NO nausea, diarrhea, and no pain that wasn't controlled by by what I was given. I do have some suggestions, but can I ask which surgeon you are using? RadiantGal